Peaches and Truths
by Spring of Inked Dreams
Summary: Dear Hinamori, tomorrow, I might not be alive anymore...and so I write this for you. In this letter is what you don't remember, what no one else has told you. In this letter is the truth. Perhaps then, you will forgive me for what I have done...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: ****I want to clear anything about the format and style of this writing in case anyone gets confused.**

**Words in **normal** font style is present, or what's happening currently. It'll be in third person form.**

**Words in **_italics _**are part of the letter (you'll find out about that if you read on!). They are written in first person and consist of the past.**

**Different font styles show different narratives by two different characters. You figure out who's who later. **

**"Together" means that the chapter will have both normal and italics and will switch between the two view points.**

**And you get what "Hitsugaya" and "Hinamori" will mean then. Hopefully...**

**Oh, and I'm not familiar with how peoples talk in court and stuff...so don't laugh too hard if I don't do the phrases and sayings right. **

**Enjoy!**

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**One- Together**

"Case number 321, Town of Kurakara versus

"Hitsugaya Toushiro."

_Dear Hinamori,_

"Defendent is accused of the first degree murder of Aizen Sousuke."

_I don't know what led me to write this, as I'm waiting for tomorrow to come. Tomorrow, I'm being put on trial. _

_But you would know._

_You're the one that accused me._

"Penalty: death by hanging."

_But I can't hate you. _

_Because you don't remember._

_You don't remember what we went through._

The judge, sits behind his name plate: Judge Yamamoto, looks down at the teenage boy who seems to be of stone and ice, with his winter blue eyes, his silvery hair.

The boy looks down at the ground in cold silence, seems to have no emotion at all.

_But I know everything. _

_Peaches are sweet only on the flesh, on the outside. You know this well, I remember that you loved peaches._

_But the core, the innermost part of the fruit..._

_That part is cold, stony._

_Maybe you can understand this:_

_Peaches are like stories. _

_The less you know about the story, the sweeter it is._

_that's because its all lies._

The girl on the prosecution side sits next to the lawyer, her hands are folded in her laps. She sits straight, her brown eyes cold, her face that is framed by wisps of black hair rigid.

She glares at the boy.

She hates him.

It's all his fault.

_But if you dig deeper, deeper into the words, you'll find the most bitter part-_

_you'll find the truth._

She looks down at her hands, and realizes her knuckles are white from squeezing too hard. She looks back at the boy. She wants him to know. To know that she hates him. She wants him to feel guilty.

She wants him dead.

The judge starts again.

"Hinamori Momo, accuser of the defendent, are you ready to commence this trial?"

She gives a definate nod.

_That truth, about me, about what I did..._

_I was afraid for you to know._

_Because maybe then..._

_You would never smile again._

_But now, as I write this, I wonder..._

_Maybe you should know._

"Hitsugaya Toushiro, defendent, are you ready to commence this trial?"

The boy gives a stiff, barely noticeable movement.

_And so, as you are reading this letter, if you ever get this in your hands..._

_Are you ready?_

"Then let this trial begin."

_Then I shall start the story of our past..._

_I shall tell you the core, the most bitter part-_

_the truth._

**A/N: I really do hope I haven't lost anyone yet! This is only the beginning, so please support this fanfic and keep reading!**

**Better yet, review!!!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Sorry I didn't upload in a long time. I'll try harder to do it more frequently! Any suggestions are welcome (just put it nicely). Comment! **

**Edit (8/10/09): I just realized that I switched into past tense for this chapter in the beginnning! Sorry! None of the plot is changed. I'm just really nit-picky so I changed the tenses. The beginning is now in present tense, which is the way I orginally wanted it (I just forgot!). **

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Two

"Ladies and gentlemen of this courtroom," A petite Asian woman stands up and paces in front of the audience. "You are here today because this young woman has been robbed of a felicity that every breathing object deserves to have…"

"A father."

The girl can find nothing to look at in the filled courtroom. She does not look at the faces of the jurors. She does not want their pity. So she glares at the boy at the defense side with stone cold eyes.

She wants his penalty.

He does not return her gaze as her attorney continues her opening statement.

"Five years ago, Hinamori Momo thought she was to finally have a loving family when Sousuke Aizen adopted her from an orphanage. She thought she was to finally have a person to call 'father', a place to call 'home'.

"But instead, she was given a one-year coma, memory loss, and the death of her caring new father. How?"

"Because on that day five years ago, when Sousuke Aizen adopted Hinamori Momo…

"He also adopted a new brother for her to love and love her back.

"It was that very same brother who killed Sousuke Aizen, caused Momo to lose her memories out of shock, and stole her right for happiness. That boy was

"Hitsugaya Toushiro."

_Hitsugaya Toushiro._

_That was the name I was given by my parents- at least, it was the name I remembered being called. I wouldn't have known if it was my real name. Both my mother and father died in an accident when I was an age too young to have a consciousness._

_Unlike the other kids in the orphanage in Karakura, it was the only thing I owned. The rest of them…they all came to the orphanage with something. A small toy, a blanket, a memory of where they came from. _

_I only came with my name._

_I suppose the way I felt when I was found by Granny on the streets was the same way you felt when you awoke from your coma._

_Who am I? _

_Why am I alone?_

_Karakura- as you probably know- is not a very poor town. You rarely find people begging or living in the streets. _

_Which was why I was an oddity._

_All the other orphans there, they were either unwanted by their parents or runaways. They knew where they came from, who they were. _

_I was the only one who didn't._

_But it was probably my personality that kept the others away. It wasn't really hard to hear them whispering about me. _

"_Cold and mean."_

"…_doesn't talk to anyone."_

"…_never smiles…"_

"_Like ice."_

_But you were somehow…different. _

_You weren't intimidated by me._

_--_

_I remember that it was winter when we met. A couple days before Christmas. I was sneaking off from the orphanage. All they would talk about was the stupid holiday, which reminded me of the nonexistent family I had. _

_I ran off from the orphanage often. No one really cared- they never missed me anyway. And Granny would only scold me once and a while, but not as much as some of the other kids who tried. Unlike the others, I could find my way back. _

_The weather was particularly cold that day; I remember that because I always liked the cold. And the sky was heavy with snow clouds. The snow on the ground was turning old, but the wind was turning it into ice._

_I wasn't really aiming for anywhere to go that day, only just trying to escape the warm air inside the orphanage. The whole town had a winter break, and so the streets were empty with everyone home._

_It was when I decided after walking for maybe an hour or two that I bumped into you. _

_Rather, you fell onto me._

_A peach hit my head first. I caught it before it could hit the ground and looked up at the tree above me. I didn't have a chance to wonder how it still carried a fruit with it's bare branches, because then I heard an "uh oh" and the next thing I knew, a girl was falling down towards me._

_That girl was you._

"_Ouchies…" You said while you were still on top of me._

_I told you to get off me. But it must have been muffled since my face was in the snow and you were squishing me. So I repeated myself louder and you finally seemed to realize that you fell not on the snow, but on person._

"_Oh whoops! Sorry!" You quickly got off and stood, patting the snow off your thin summer clothes.._

_I did the same, irritated that my peaceful walk was ruined. Then I looked up and got a chance to look at you._

_Perhaps you might not remember what you looked like back then when we first met. I can tell you now._

_You had your black hair tied into two, messy pigtails. Your brown eyes were still the same, except larger. And that air you always carried about you was…well, babyish. Although when we had our reunion yesterday, you lost that look._

_But you were taller than me when we first met as well. And in my memories you were always taller than me. It was until yesterday that I thought you would always be taller. Two year can change a lot in a person, I guess._

_But you were taller than me. That was the first thing I noticed about you as I watched you pick up your tattered backpack. You saw me looking at you and probably thought I was angry at you with the annoyed look I always had on my face._

_You bowed down a bit and laughed sheepishly while saying sorry over and over again. Then your knapsack opened and a pile of peaches tumbled out onto the snow. _

_As you picked them up, I asked you what you were doing with all those._

_You gave me a simple look. "I'm going to eat them of course."_

_At that moment, you appeared to me as a confused girl. Someone that shouldn't be bothered with. Yet I found myself asking you more questions._

"_Why do you need that many of them?" _

"_Because I like peaches. They're sweet." You answered simply yet again._

"_What were you doing up a tree? Don't you have anywhere to go?" I was expecting you to be some sort of foolish little girl lost or playing hide and seek with your parents._

"_Nope. I'm running away."_

_This caught my attention. "From who? Your parents?"_

_You broke your glance away from me and off to the horizon. "I don't know. Maybe." You shrugged. "I don't really remember anything except that I'm running away."_

"_So, you don't know what you're running away from. Or where you're from. And you have no where to go." I said impatiently. I probably should've been more sensitive about it, but I wasn't exactly the most understanding person back then._

"_Nope." My sarcastic remark didn't seem to bother you though. Because you simply smiled brightly at me. It occurred to me that you were probably used to the concept of being alone._

_Then you sneezed. I offered you my mittens, and then eventually my coat. I thought that it would be pathetic for me as a guy to be standing there all dressed warmly next to a girl without anything on her. _

_You thanked me and then looked at the coat curiously. Like you've never worn a coat before. _

_I looked at you expectantly, waiting for you to put it on. I liked the cold, but not that much. _

"_Um…" You laughed sheepishly. It was that guilty naive laugh that would stay with you the next two years. Do you still have it? Anyway, you then said. "…can you help me put it on?"_

_So I did, grudgingly. You didn't seem to notice how pissed I was and giggled out a "thank you". _

_You offered me a peach in return. _

_I didn't like fruit back then. Actually, the only thing I ever liked back then was candy- eating anything else for me was a hassle (which was probably why I was so short). _

_But I accepted, for some reason. I guess I was too afraid to offend you. I didn't really understand why I ate it. But under your eyes, eating the dumb fruit wasn't such a torture._

_And soon enough, we were sitting on a bench and talking. We didn't really talk much about our pasts- neither of us really had one. Instead, we talked about what we didn't have. We talked about what we thought it would be like to have a sibling, to go to a normal school, to go home and say "I'm back". _

_Pretty soon, it was eight and the church bells rung. By that time, you had already become the closest person I knew. I told you more than I had told anyone about myself in the past twelve years I had lived in the orphanage. _

_Maybe it was for that reason that I didn't really want to leave you behind. _

_So I got up and told you to come with me and live at the orphanage._

_You were reluctant at first and asked if people would be mad if you went to stay. Then you worried that people wouldn't like you._

_I never said this out loud, but when you asked me those questions, I thought they were the stupidest questions I had ever heard. I replied, "Who cares? As long as you'll be happy, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks."_

_I didn't say this out loud either: I didn't think you would have a problem making friends. Actually, that was what I was worrying about at the time._

_But then you asked, "Will he find me there? No one will take me away right?"_

_I wondered who you were talking about, and then I asked._

_You only gave me a blank look and said, "I don't know. But I know someone is looking for me. Someone bad." _

_I didn't understand how dangerous that person was at the time. In fact, I only thought you were confused. So I just assured you that no one would hurt you there. And since you insisted, I even promised you. I didn't know how impossible it would be to keep that promise._

_So you smiled brightly and ran ahead. You spun back to look at me- I was never the kind of person to show excitement, but you were. _

"_Come on! Let's go, um…" You trailed off._

_That was when I realized that during those four hours we talked, I forgot to ask the most important thing about you: your name._

_But I was a guy, and being the kid I was back then, I was too shy to ask your name first. So you did._

"_What's your name again?" You asked._

"_Toushiro. Hitsugaya Toushiro." I called out. Just in case you were too far to hear._

"_Nice to meet you, Toushiro-chan!" You called out your greeting- something we forgot to do when we met. And you called me Toushiro-chan. Something nobody has called me before. Actually, you were the first one to ever call me by first name._

"_My name's Momo! Hinamori Momo!" Then you seemed have thought about something for a while and asked, "How old are you Toushiro-chan?"_

"_Twelve."_

_You giggled. I didn't really see what was so funny. Then I thought, maybe you were laughing about my height- something I was touchy about back then. I yelled out in irritation, "What's so funny?"_

"_I'm twelve too." You laughed even harder. By then, I had already caught up to you, and you ruffled my hair. "That's okay, Toushiro-chan."_

"_It's Hitsugaya to you." I grumbled. _

_But you never called me by Hitsugaya. And I didn't tell you this but…_

_I never really minded._

--

"Today, Hitsugaya Toushiro is facing this trial to see if he is to repay all the people he has robbed and hurt.

"Today, it will be you all to choose between letting Hinamori Momo finally sleep peacefully, or allowing Hitsugaya Toushiro to sin more."

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	3. Chapter 3

**Three**

"Counselor Soi Fon of the prosecution, you may be seated.

"Defense, state your case."

With that, the petite Asian woman returns to her table and takes her seat next to the teenage girl.

From the defense table, a long, black haired man with dark eyes stands and walks in front of the jury. He stares long and hard at each face, as if he is trying to convey a message through sight.

But he can not prove the boy- that criminal- innocent. This was the thought that ran through the girl's head as she watched him begin.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury…consider the following: you are finally in a happy family, somewhere you belong, after being an orphan. You have a loving new sister now, one that you vowed to protect.

"Now, imagine that very same sister accusing you of being a killer.

"Imagine that very same sister now trying to kill you.

"You see, ladies and gentlemen, Hinamori Momo may have suffered a two-year coma, a loss of her past, a loss of a father…

"But Hitsugaya Toushiro has lost more.

"Hitsugaya Toushiro knows his past, he knows the truth, he loved his foster sister, and he loved his new father. Yet now he is being treated as a criminal for something he did not do.

"I ask you now, members of the jury:

"How is that, in any way, fair?"

--

"_The orphanage is blessed to have you." Granny said that to you when I appeared at the door with you hiding behind me. She said that to everyone who entered the orphanage, even me. Except with you, her words had a truth in them._

_When I told you to come with me, you asked if everyone in the orphanage would like you. I told you not to worry about it, and I thought to myself that everyone would probably like you. _

_I was wrong._

_They loved you._

_You became the center of attention. Granny always chose you to read the bedtime stories to everyone else, and all the kids wanted to play with you. You could've chosen to be friends with the other happy-go-lucky girls. _

_But for some reason that I still cannot understand even today, you chose me._

_And- I was too embarrassed to tell you that back then, but- I was happy for that. Because somehow, I had started to like you as well. It was probably that smile. With that smile on, you made it seem like there was no such thing as sadness, jealousy…all those things that make people cry these days. You were innocent. And…_

_I wanted you to stay that way._

_With that in my mind, somewhere along the way as we grew up together, I made to myself a promise. I wanted to protect you, so that you could stay carefree._

_That was before I realized how impossible it would be to keep that promise._

_--_

_The day our lives changed forever started as a normal morning. _

_I was trying to sleep in as long as I could, I thought back then that the more I slept the taller I would grow. Maybe I was right, but if I was, then I probably won't be growing any taller; I became an insomniac since the day we separated. _

_But you were sent by Granny to wake me up. And like always, you did so by getting close to my face and giggling: "Rise and shine Shiro-chan!" And even after two years of telling you so, you never seemed to understand that I was faking sleep (I wasn't that sound of a sleeper). _

_I opened my eyes and gave that same pissed look (I actually thought you would stop doing that). I was unfazed by how close your face was. It was something I grew used to. "I'm already awake."_

_And you, as always and unlike the others, were unfazed by my scowl. You understood that it wasn't that I didn't like you- I was just like that. So you just smiled that bright smile that reminded me of the sun, and chirped: "Good."_

_You got up from the ground and threw some clothes you got from my drawer by my straw mat. Then you skipped out the door and called out as you bounded down the stairs: "Breakfast will be ready soon!"_

_I didn't take long to dress, I currently don't either. I threw on a simple T-shirts and shorts, but not the ones you gave me. I always made a point in doing that. You were always the motherly type, but I hated being babied. Especially by you, since you were the same age as me, taller, and a girl. I didn't realize it, but I do now. I was such a kid back then, wasn't I? _

_I would do anything to even be babied by you now._

_I went downstairs and found all the other orphans already seated at the table. Although it was never officially announced, each one of us had our own place we sat at every meal. Mine was always by you, since you were the only person who wasn't scared of me._

_It was when I was scarfing down my tenth blueberry pancake when a knock came from the door._

_All of us stopped slurping, fighting for food, and doing all the other immature stuff we did back then to listen for who it could be. But both Granny's and the visitor's voice was too hushed to be heard from the dining room. We did hear the rustle of papers, and the scratch of a pen though. So we knew one thing: someone was moving out._

_Maybe I was a weird orphan (I was different from all the other kids, after all), but I hoped it wasn't me. One of the many things I never admitted was that I liked the orphanage. All those complaints about the room being too small, the others being too noisy…they were all true. But still, I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. _

_The thought of calling some stranger "father" or "mother"…waking up without you in my face…_

_It scared me._

_It was ten minutes later when Granny finally said something to us. And that was to call you into the room. _

_When I heard "Momo-chan", I stopped reaching for my eleventh pancake. Suddenly, I didn't care if that extra pancake could've given me an inch._

_You always handled situations differently than I did back then. Where I would've objected, you endured. And so, you obediently followed. But like I said before, you handled situations differently than I did. _

_So naturally, where I would've looked ahead, you looked back. And the person you looked to was me. _

_And the second I saw your eyes…I swear, I had never seen you as frightened as you were back then than any other time you looked to me. But I had already made my decision before I saw that look on your face; I made my decision the moment Granny called your name. _

_I wasn't going to let you go._

_Thinking about it now, everyone must have been even more frightened of me when I scowled at the table. I didn't notice, or care, at that time. I was too busy trying to think of how to keep you here._

_I hated feeling useless. I still do, but not as much as I did back then, or even at that time. I hated, and still hate, feeling useless in front of you. There was this aura you had about you that made me want to do my best. _

_And because I could see no other way at that time (and I still don't now), I got up, stormed into the room, and interrupted._

"_Hinamori can't go!" _

_I don't know what the expression on Granny or the man's face was, since I was looking at the wood floor that time. I probably seemed pathetic to them, and I must have known that back then too since I remember how hot with embarrassment my face felt. _

_I remember how hopeless I felt, and all the possible ways this could turn out wrong. I was on the fiftieth way of how the man could've rejected me when by some kind of miracle, he said:_

"_I can take him in too."_

_We both looked up in surprise. And we saw the man, our new father, smile. _

_Granny's voice seemed far away when she said. "Are you sure? Don't let Hitsugaya-kun intimidate you. He is quite the trouble-maker."_

_Granny was right, but even so, he only said. "Well, it would only make me feel guilty if I separate them. And besides," His brown eyes met mine, "this young man already seems to be close to Momo-chan anyway." _

_This was how we first met Aizen Sousuke. _

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